find by modification time in Linux CLI - Commands & Configuration

Introduction

Sometimes you need to find files that were changed recently or a long time ago. The Linux find command can search files based on when they were last modified. This helps you quickly locate files by their modification date.

When you want to delete files not changed in the last 30 days to free up space

When you need to back up files modified in the last 24 hours

When you want to check which files were changed today in a project folder

When you want to list files modified more than a year ago for archiving

When you want to find files modified exactly 7 days ago for review

Commands

This command finds files in /home/user/documents modified less than 1 day ago. The -mtime -1 means files changed within the last 24 hours.

Terminal

find /home/user/documents -mtime -1

Expected Output

/home/user/documents/report.txt

/home/user/documents/notes.txt

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-mtime - Find files by modification time in days

This command finds files modified more than 30 days ago in /home/user/documents. The +30 means files older than 30 days.

Terminal

find /home/user/documents -mtime +30

Expected Output

/home/user/documents/old_data.csv

/home/user/documents/archive.zip

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-mtime - Find files by modification time in days

This command finds files modified exactly 7 days ago in /home/user/documents. The 7 means files changed between 7 and 8 days ago.

Terminal

find /home/user/documents -mtime 7

Expected Output

/home/user/documents/weekly_report.docx

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-mtime - Find files by modification time in days

Key Concept

If you remember nothing else from this pattern, remember: -mtime lets you find files by how many days ago they were last changed.

Common Mistakes

Using -mtime 1 to find files changed in the last 1 day

-mtime 1 finds files changed between 1 and 2 days ago, not within the last day

Use -mtime -1 to find files changed less than 1 day ago

Confusing + and - signs with -mtime

+ means older than, - means newer than, missing sign means exactly that many days ago

Use +N for older than N days, -N for newer than N days, N for exactly N days ago

Summary

Use find with -mtime to search files by modification time in days.

-mtime -N finds files modified within the last N days.

-mtime +N finds files modified more than N days ago.

-mtime N finds files modified exactly N days ago.